Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se

 Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se

Song: Chalo ik baar phir se
Movie:  Gumraah (1963)
Singer: Mahendra Kapoor
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Music: Ravi (Ravi Shankar Sharma)

Mahendra Kapoor

Ravi

Most of us fall in love, but few are lucky to spend life with the person they had fallen in love with. And then, there is the unexpressed love that’s a very delicate feeling. Unexpressed and unfulfilled, it is often silent. But it remains in the heart permanently occupying a corner. 

Sahir Ludhianvi

Amrita Pritam

It is said that Sahir was in love with Amrita Pritam. One an idealist poet, the other a writer. Both were from Lahore. They had met at a mushaira (poetry reading session) & they fell in love. She was in a loveless marriage. Her feelings for Sahir were later known to all when her letters to him were published.

Yet it is said, Sahir never committed to her. Their’s was a romance that was conducted through distances that he didn’t seem to want to bridge. They’d write love letters to each other, but the few times they met in secret, there were more silences than words.

Her being married, their relationship hovered in taboo territory and yet was strangely chaste, conducted as it was through silences and letters. Yet, for all its poignant lack of fulfillment, this was a love affair that filled the lives of the two people who embarked upon it.

Later he moved to Mumbai and she to Delhi with her husband. It is said that the relationship ended when Sahir fell in love with singer Sudha Malhotra.

Sudha Malhotra

This song "Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se", is said to be autobiographical of Sahir’s relationship with Amrita. In the film, Sunil Dutt and Mala Sinha portray the couple in love. Circumstances force her to marry another man. The platonic relationship with her husband rekindles old embers with her ex-boy friend when he happens to visit them. They realise their love for each other had not abated. Yet both know their love is doomed...

The words in the song are perfectly pitched and suited to the circumstances, drawing upon the irony and the pain of the situation, while recognizing the impossibility of any hopes that may be held for the future. The words hint, they scold, they mock, they soar, they cajole, and they also plead. Beyond just the context of the song, there's something indescribably sad about the thought and emotion of loving someone and then losing that loved one to someone else for reasons beyond one’s control.

There are some deeply meaningful lines-
वो अफ़्साना जिसे अंजाम तक लाना न हो मुम्किन, उसे इक ख़ूबसूरत मोड़ दे कर छोड़ना अच्छा
A story or trip that cannot be taken to its logical destination is best left at a beautiful turn in the journey.

Or these

तुम्हें भी कोई उलझन रोकती है पेश-क़दमी से, मुझे भी लोग कहते हैं कि ये जल्वे पराए हैं,
There are dilemma’s that prevent you from taking the next step, and people tell me these sparklers are not for me
मेरे हमराह भी रुस्वाइयाँ हैं मेरे माज़ी की, तुम्हारे साथ भी गुज़री हुई रातों के साए हैं
The humiliations of my past are now my companions, while the shadows of bygone nights will remain with you

 The song does not have a set rhyme scheme. In fact, the first line is just a line - चलो इक बार फिर से अजनबी बन जाएँ हम दोनों – Nothing comes after it to rhyme with “हम दोनों” . Similarly, the first अंतरा has some rhyming words like नज़रों से and बातों से. It rhymes into A B B B
But the next two अंतरा do not have a rhyme scheme matching the first. They have similar rhyme schemes though. They rhyme like C D E D and F G H G.

The song is picturised on Sunil Dutt singing playing a piano with Mala Sinha and Ashok Kumar (as her husband) looking on. The song had some Urdu words, to get the meaning I referred to Rekhta . org and I am thankful to them for creating such a great website.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N4kuNWhWnw

For a better audio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FAX4afEScE

  

चलो इक बार फिर से अजनबी बन जाएँ हम दोनों

न मैं तुम से कोई उम्मीद रखूँ दिल-नवाज़ी की

दिल-नवाज़ी = Compassion

न तुम मेरी तरफ़ देखो ग़लत-अंदाज़ नज़रों से 

न मेरे दिल की धड़कन लड़खड़ाए मेरी बातों से

न ज़ाहिर हो तुम्हारी कश्मकश का राज़ नज़रों से

तुम्हें भी कोई उलझन रोकती है पेश-क़दमी से

पेश-क़दमी = To advance or take the next step

मुझे भी लोग कहते हैं कि ये जल्वे पराए हैं

मेरे हमराह भी रुस्वाइयाँ हैं मेरे माज़ी की

हमराह = companion, fellow traveller

रुस्वाइयाँ = humiliations

माज़ी = Past

तुम्हारे साथ भी गुज़री हुई रातों के साए हैं

तआरुफ़ रोग हो जाए तो उसका भूलना बेहतर

तआरुफ़ = introduction

तअल्लुक़ बोझ बन जाए तो उसको तोड़ना अच्छा

तअल्लुक़ = relationship

वो अफ़्साना जिसे अंजाम तक लाना न हो मुम्किन

अफ़्साना = क़िस्सा

उसे इक ख़ूबसूरत मोड़ दे कर छोड़ना अच्छा

चलो इक बार फिर से अजनबी बन जाएँ हम दोनों